William Shatner Criticizes Facebook Hoax Ad Announcing His Death (people.com) 76
"William Shatner is alive and well -- in fact, he turned 87 on Thursday, so the actor was not pleased when he saw an ad on Facebook sharing a story about his alleged death," writes the Hollywood Reporter. An anonymous reader quotes People:
"@WilliamShatner I thought you might want to know you're dead," a Twitter user wrote, along with a screenshot of the ad. Less than a half hour later, Shatner posted his own message calling out the social media company for spreading the phony news... "Thought you were doing something about this?" he wrote. Several hours after Shatner's tweet, Facebook's director of product management Rob Leathern messaged the actor to let him know that the ad had been removed. "Thank you," Shatner replied. "I'm not planning on dying so please continue to block those kinds of ads..." Fortunately, Shatner's in good company when it comes to celebrity death hoaxes... News of Sylvester Stallone's fake death originally began circulating on Facebook in 2016.
In late 2016 Mark Zuckerberg posted that "We take misinformation seriously..." while adding that "we know people want accurate information. We've been working on this problem for a long time and we take this responsibility seriously." Ironically, that announcement appeared next to a similar fake ad announcing that Hugh Hefner was dead, though at the time Hefner was very much alive.
"We've made significant progress," Zuckerberg's post continued, "but there is more work to be done."
In late 2016 Mark Zuckerberg posted that "We take misinformation seriously..." while adding that "we know people want accurate information. We've been working on this problem for a long time and we take this responsibility seriously." Ironically, that announcement appeared next to a similar fake ad announcing that Hugh Hefner was dead, though at the time Hefner was very much alive.
"We've made significant progress," Zuckerberg's post continued, "but there is more work to be done."
It really shouldn't be that hard (Score:5, Insightful)
With Facebook's resources they should already have algorithms that can roughly pinpoint who started the hoax, ID them and publicly castigate them or ban them.
Or even better, the originators just get a notice saying "Facebook Legal has determined that you are one of the first/most influential sharers of this hoax. All information about this defamatory post has been preserved in the event that the target wishes to pursue legal action."
I think that would cause enough puckering sphincters to start changing attitudes.
Re:It really shouldn't be that hard (Score:5, Insightful)
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There has always been bad information on the internet, it's just that now it's easier to hide the source.
It's not just the internet. Let's not forget Richard Wilkins back in 2009 reported that Jeff Goldblum had died on set while filming in New Zealand. Jeff Goldblum is still alive and well. There have always been such gaffes and there always will be, internet or not.
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Next you'll tell me Paul McCartney is still alive...
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Next you'll tell me Paul McCartney is still alive...
Well thankfully Abe Vigoda is still alive.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Vigoda
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>With Facebook's resources they should already have algorithms
It's making me wonder for sure. Is it just too huge a problem to effectively solve with algorithms.
They know this is devastating to their bottom line, so they must be trying at least a bit. Either they dgaf and are among the worst sociopaths out there (doubt it) or this problem is a lot harder than we all think.
Rock and hard place. Hiring actual people to filter BS posts which will cost big $$$ versus loss of revenue due to bad optics of BS posts which also costs big $$$. All things being equal, if I were faced with losing a few billion dollars, I think I'd try to do some good while taking my lumps.
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Just block the fucking ads. Problem solved.
Oh, wait, ads are what Failbook lives for.
Re:It really shouldn't be that hard (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It really shouldn't be that hard (Score:4, Funny)
Is he in a box?
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Either Shatner is dead or he isn't.
Only if you're looking at him
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Either Shatner is dead or he isn't.
Maybe not -- perhaps his middle name is Schrodinger, and then it'd be and.
Besides, even heard of hospital resuscitation? Maybe it's 100% completely accurate but just extremely FAST news.
He's dead, Jim. ZAP. He's back. Oops, he's gone again. ZAP. He's ba, nope. ZAAP. Back again. Still back. Sti, nope. ZAAAAAAAAAAAP. Back, but medium well now.. Y'know, I didn't know that went up to 11 -- you learn learn something new every day.
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... an army of meatrobots filtering content ...
Wait a sec, is this something that AI can't do? Seems like an easy one to have the text scanned and if it determines that it is claiming someone is dead, then run through the list of all famous people, then verify if they really are dead, then flag it for the meatrobot to verify. I'd say we could give that brain-dead job to the siliconrobots.
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With Facebook's resources they should already have algorithms that can roughly pinpoint who started the hoax, ID them and publicly castigate them or ban them.
Or even better, the originators just get a notice saying "Facebook Legal has determined that you are one of the first/most influential sharers of this hoax. All information about this defamatory post has been preserved in the event that the target wishes to pursue legal action."
I think that would cause enough puckering sphincters to start changing attitudes.
Forget algorithms. Computers are stupid. You can always game any automated system. Put people to work. Require verification of news posts, you know, like actual journalists always did before the inter-webs put them out of their jobs.
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Forget algorithms. Computers are stupid. You can always game any automated system. Put people to work. Require verification of news posts, you know, like actual journalists always did before the inter-webs put them out of their jobs.
"Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter."
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The real message should have read:
"You're dead, Jim." -- Bones
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Assuming the hoax actually started on facebook, and not somewhere else... Perhaps someone saw the news somewhere else and decided to share it on facebook?
What we need is not less information, but more, including education... People shouldn't believe everything they read regardless of where it comes from, they should always question what they hear and verify any claims.
Censorship is a slippery slope, and censoring provably false information is only the first stage because its easy to argue for... It moves on
"We take misinformation seriously..." (Score:5, Insightful)
"We take misinformation seriously..." unless it leads to ad revenue.
Any and all currencies accepted. Thank you.
They probably meant... (Score:2)
...his career.
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It was just ... that one of his pauses ... got so long ... ... that they ... ... ... thought ... ... ... he'd stopped.
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Does any 87 year old have a career?
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SCOTUS justices
The reports of my death have been greatly... (Score:5, Insightful)
Erroneously reporting the death of a famous person in various forms of media has been going on a lot longer than Facebook has been around.
Bill Shatner should be pleased that people actually care whether or not he's alive - there are a lot of octogenarian TV & movie stars that when somebody hears their name reply with "I thought they were dead."
Need one of these for everyone (Score:2)
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Not even a Star Trek first...James Doohan was reported dead online years before he really was.
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Bill Shatner should be pleased that people actually care whether or not he's alive - there are a lot of octogenarian TV & movie stars that when somebody hears their name reply with "I thought they were dead."
I think that's just as much to do with the way the person chooses to retire. Some of them are like "I'm done", they've lived in the spotlight most their lives and when it's no longer part of the "job" they clam up completely, no interviews, no memoirs, no events, no celebrity dinners, nothing. It's like they dropped off the earth because they wanted to just be that old man in the park playing with his grandkids and great-grandkids.
Other people seem to be enjoying it (or milking it?) to the last, even if you
Early 2000's (Score:2)
There was tons of dead celebrity hoaxes passed though email back in the day. I'd be exited if people care enough to put the effort to create those about me.
Automation doesn't work (Score:3)
Ummm..... (Score:2)
RIP Mark Zuckerberg (Score:1)
His company needs to die with him.
What kind of ad? (Score:2)
So, what is someone selling with (faux) dead actors for sponsors? Longevity vitamins?
Who the f.ck does things like that ? (Score:1)
Who the f.ck does things like that ? And more importantly what do they have to gain from it ? This is not like starting some sort of fake news on a forum or twitter and letting it spread just for the lulz. This is a fake ad, somebody somewhere actually had to PAY for this ad, and probably not a trivial amount of money. Surely they expected some kind of payback, preferably significantly more than what the ad costs.
I may be missing something, but I just don't get their business model.
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Perhaps shatner himself or a publicist working on his behalf paid for the ad in order to draw attention. It wouldn't be the first time a fading celebrity did something to try and become relevant again.
Abe Vigoda.. (Score:1)
Not dead (Score:2)
He's just pining for the fjords...
You won't believe who died!!! (Score:3)
[insert photo of popular celebrity here]
I think that's how this clickscam works.
"Oh, no, we weren't saying [celebrity] died, that's just an image from the story in which [celebrity] is mentioned. It's actually [celebrity]'s housemaid who died."
What had been tolerated is now crtticized (Score:2)
What? (Score:1)
Did he forget and wear a red shirt by mistake one day?
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Into his trailer? Don't you mean, under his bridge?
It's worse than that... (Score:3)
Nonsense. William Shatner IS dead. (Score:3)
Meanwhile... (Score:2)
Abe Vigoda is still dead. [isabevigodadead.com] As is Generalissimo Francisco Franco. [youtube.com]
Celebrity Deaths (Score:2)
As to Stallone, he didn't die in 2016, he actually died back in the 90s, and it's just his zombie corpse that's been keeping his career alive. Unfortunately it can't pronounce "brains" properly so a lot of people in Hollywood didn't even realize it.
April 1st (Score:1)
It's like everyday is April 1st on facebook.